Chapter 14 Daxen #3
‘I said no, Daxen. After this, we won’t be going back. I’ve been there twice already. I know the layout. I know what I’m looking for. You told me yourself that the wards are gone, so that makes this even less dangerous than before. I’m going.”
I snarl, irritated with his excuses.
“It’s not the fucking wards I’m concerned about, and you know it.”
Yes, the wards are gone. I sent another drone out early this morning in an attempt to keep eyes on the estate, and every scan, every reading, came back normal. It’s as if the wards just… disappeared.
That doesn’t mean shit, though. It’s just another anomaly. Another unanswered question.
“What the fuck do you think an Omega is going to do to me?” Caelan pushes, his lips a thin line of irritation. “Do you think I’m that shit at my job? That I’ll let a tiny, touch-starved Omega get the drop on me?”
“How the hell would you know she’s touch-starved?” I throw my hands up in exasperation.
Fates, how can’t he see what’s right in front of him?
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. There’s no reason you should know that!”
“I told you she was locked inside her room, Daxen.” He shakes his head, anger glinting in his eyes. “You didn’t see her. She had no nesting materials. No soft blankets or pillows. Nothing. I told you that.”
“Who cares about blankets?” I snap. “I’m so sick of repeating myself. You don’t know her. She’s manipulating you!”
He scoffs. “You’re fucking paranoid.”
“She could be a plant,” I point out, trying not to give in to the very real desire I have to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze.
Why is he so damn stubborn? Can’t he see I’m only trying to protect him?
“Varenthrall could have her set up as a honey trap. Alphas will expose themselves real fast if he can use his Omega daughter to manipulate their instinct to ‘save’ her.”
“You always think that. You always think Omegas are manipulating you somehow. They’re not. And she was on suppressants. Fucking military-grade if I had to guess. There was no manipulation happening.”
Caelan scrubs a hand over his shaved scalp, then pins me with a determined glare. “You don’t know what’s happening to her, so don’t accuse her of shit you have no proof of. I know one thing for sure—she wasn’t manipulating me.”
“Then why the fuck couldn’t you leave?”
I toss out the accusation and watch it explode like a bomb between us. Caelan’s eyes flash with pain—real pain—and I’m just about to apologize when the door swings open and Gav appears, looking like he wants nothing more than to throw us both down a flight of stairs.
“I’m so fucking sick of you two fighting about this shit,” He growls. “Caelan is the best stealth operative we have. He got in and out last time, and he got us the information we needed. This is his job to see through.”
I try to protest, but keep quiet when he turns his steely gaze on me.
“You are not his fucking babysitter, Daxen. You are his packmate. If you’re that opposed to my decision, you can file a formal fucking complaint.” He pauses. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me?”
I stiffen, barely catching myself before I glance at Caelan and give myself away. I clear my throat, swallowing down the guilt and fear that are doing their best to choke me. “No, sir. I’m just trying to do my job.”
“Your job is not to play armchair psychiatrist. I don’t want to hear anymore about this shit, got it?” He turns to Caelan before I can open my mouth to respond.
“You don’t get anywhere near the East Wing of that house. That is a direct fucking order. Do I make myself clear?”
Caelan clenches his jaw, meeting Gavran’s gaze head-on.
“Yes, sir. Crystal clear.”
The silence that falls is thick with tension, as we follow Gav back into the room. We’re all clearly on edge. I can damn near taste the pheromones in the room despite the scent neutralizer pumping through the vents.
Riven clears his throat. He stands at the head of the bed now, gazing at the Omega thoughtfully.
His eyes meet mine, and I stiffen at what I see.
“What?” I bark, tone a little too sharp, still a little too on edge.
Riven doesn’t even flinch. I swear, nothing affects him, not even my attitude. “Have I ever told you how I got this?”
He slips off the onyx bracelet he always wears. The stones gleam in the light.
Gav shrugs. “Assumed it was some kind of family heirloom.”
Riv snorts in derision. “Hardly. Any heirlooms my parents had, they sold off long ago in a fruitless attempt to purchase clout. No, this is something all my own.”
He turns it over in his hands, thumb tracing the curve of the stone with reverence.
“Very touching,” Vae replies dryly. “Love a good jewelry origin story. Is there a point you’re getting to or…”
The smile Riven shoots him reminds me of a shark. Predatory and full of teeth. “As a matter of fact, I do have a point I’m getting to.”
He pulls his chair closer to the bed and sits, clasping his hands between his legs. “What I’m about to share does not leave this room.”
“Yes. Alright.” Vae quickly agrees, but Riven isn’t addressing us.
He’s looking at Gavran.
“I’ll have your Oath on it, Last Shield, or I won’t continue.”
Gav, clearly realizing how serious this is to Riven, nods solemnly “You have my word.”
Satisfied, Riven relaxes, draping an arm over the back of the chair. The bracelet is still in his hand, and he lets the delicate stones slip slowly through his fingers.
“When I was much younger,” he begins, “and decided to walk away from my House and all the pretentious ass-kissing, I had to start from nothing. I refused to use their name, so I had to build something from the bottom up.”
He smirks. “I accomplished that, eventually. But, before I began to build my empire, I was a young vampire with no money and no idea what the fuck I was doing. I had to take odd jobs. Mostly courier work, a few smuggling operations across the Barbary Coast.”
“About a year in, I picked up a grunt-work contract. Escort duty for some pompous human Alpha moving black-market relics through the Wildwood Pass in Europe. Paid half in advance, with a promise of the second half after completion. Normal for the times, and easy enough work.”
“On the way back, I got separated from the rest of the party. Got turned around. A fog rolled in, and the forest had gone completely silent. No bugs, no bird chirping, not even any wind rustling the leaves. Could barely see a fucking foot in front of my face. Fates, I must’ve looked like a real asshole.
Panicking, arms flailing in front of me so I don’t accidentally run into a tree or something equally embarrassing. ”
His gaze turns distant as he relives the memory.
“I did run into something eventually. A branch nearly took out my eye. Scraped right alongside my brow bone, and hurt like a bitch. Blood was pouring down my forehead, and when I looked down, trying to blink it out of my eyes, I saw this.”
He holds up the bracelet, slipping it back on his wrist with a snap. The movement is jerky, like he feels uneasy having it off.
“I put the damn thing on my wrist and didn’t think twice about it. I just felt like I should. Hell, I barely remembered doing it until after I found my way back to the rest of the party the next morning.”
Leaning forward, he places his elbows on his knees.
“A few days later, I went back to retrieve the second half of my payment. This asshole had the balls to look me right in the eyes and tell me he already paid me. Of course, he hadn’t.
I knew he was lying. Hell, he knew he was lying.
I think whatever he thought he had in that caravan wasn’t worth shit, and he didn’t have the money left for payment. ”
“So I’m standing there arguing with the guy when I feel a warmth radiating against my skin. I look down, and there’s a distortion in the air, like a heat wave on asphalt. It was coming off the bracelet. The more the human swore he already paid me, the hotter the damn thing got.”
He huffs out a laugh, then pauses, staring at his hands in a moment of unexpected seriousness.
“That’s the first time I felt it.”
His eyes flick up to meet ours. “That same feeling all of you got tonight, like there’s something right there that you could grab a hold of if you just tried hard enough. Something bigger than yourself. Bigger than the world.”
No one speaks. Of course, we all felt it. It was awe-inspiring as well as fucking terrifying. Riven nods slowly, as though our silence is answer enough. He already knows what we felt, because he felt it, too.
Deciding to speak up, I give him a truth of my own in exchange for his. Secrets. That’s his preferred currency, after all.
“It felt like I was right next to something beautiful and terrifying, and I was about to trespass somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be.”
A slow smile spreads across his face.
“Yes, Daxen. That’s exactly right. Something beautiful and terrifying.”
“So what’s the point?” Vae’s abrupt question snaps us out of the moment. “You have a piece of jewelry that a magic-wielder enchanted, and it gives you the same feeling as the light coming from the Omega?”
He’s trying to play it off, but I see the unease in my brother just as surely as I can feel it pulsing down our Bond.
“No magic-wielder made this, Vaelenor.” Riven glances at what I’ve quickly come to realize is a relic.
Not a piece of jewelry at all.
“Whatever magic is attached to this is older than the Oldest Houses. Older than any magic-wielders. I suspect it’s even older than vampires themselves.”
Caelan frowns. “What does this mean?”
“It means, oh Merry Band of Bastards, that if whatever changed this Omega is the same magic that allows this bracelet to do what it does, then you’re dealing with something you can’t possibly understand.
There are no rules for you to follow, because none of you know the game.
You need to play this smart. Keep it quiet. ”
Standing, he adjusts his cuff links.
“My advice? Don’t tell anyone anything, especially about the Omegas. Make sure Chicago HQ doesn’t open its mouth either. You want to keep this contained as long as possible, because this shit is dangerous. Magic like this doesn’t show up by accident.”
In unison, we all turn towards the Omega. She blinks once, never faltering in her whispered tirade.
Shivers break out on the back of my neck.
What the hell have we fallen into?
As we file into the hall, ready to head back to HQ, I pause in the doorway. Looking over my shoulder at Riven, I ask, “What happened to the man who lied about paying you?”
His smile is feral, fangs gleaming in the overhead lights.
“I ripped his fucking throat out, Daxen.” His smile widens. “Then I took my payment.”
I leave with a smirk on my face, but that damn Omega’s words are playing on repeat in my head like a bad omen.
On the way back to HQ, I catch Caelan’s reflection in the rear-view, and my stomach drops. His fists are clenched on his thighs, his eyes steady and focused on the scenery passing by out the window.
He looks focused. Determined.
Vae meets my eyes in the mirror, his expression grim. We both know something bad is coming, and we both know there’s nothing we can do to stop it.
The longer I study my brother, the more sure I am of one thing.
Caelan’s going back to that house tomorrow night, and when he comes out, he’s going to have that damn Omega with him.
No matter what his decision winds up costing us